John Rockefeller

Rockefeller

John Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company. He dominated the oil industry, and he revolutionized the use of petroleum in the industry. John Rockefeller aggressively ran his company until death, in which he then passed it onto his son. As kerosene gasoline came to be important, this helped Rockefeller become the first American with a net worth of a billion dollars. I think he could be qualified as a good role model because he spent the last 40 years of his life as a philanthropist. He put a lot of work into donating to things like medical research, which is generosity that I can look up to.This medical research helped to get rid of diseases like hookworm and yellow fever. I think Rockefeller must have been a nice man, because someone that wealthy would probably not have used their time on others, but instead on themselves. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University, showing he thought education was important. He came from a Baptist family, and he supported the church. He remained abstinent from alcohol and tobacco his whole life. He had ambitions to live until he was 100 years old and make 100,000. Obviously he reached the goal to make money, but was short 3 years of his goal to reach 100.(He died at 97.) I think what must have helped him live longer was his abstinence from those things, and that he focused on philanthropy. Rockefeller even donated 6% of his very first earnings when he was merely 16 years of age. I think that shows his true kindness to share his money, making him a very good person.

Rockefeller

To argue that he was good, Rockefeller was not always Mr.perfect. His company had become a monopoly. He owned everything from the bottom up about his company, even the train cars to transport the oil, and the forests that supplied the fuel for the train cars. He even created the Standard Oil Trust, which helped other monopolies. In the 1880's his net worth was already 55 million, thus he started receiving watch from the public eye. His standing with public was "nose-divided" meaning that many people did not agree with the Standard Oil Company and all that Rockefeller stood for. Rockefeller continued to ignore the people and focus on his philanthropy  As this was happening the people created the anti-monarchy legislation. I think Rockefeller was bad in the way of having a monopoly; unfortunately  at that time, that was how the large business men got their income. Overall Rockefeller was a good man I am assuming, because of his good work and the way he set examples for our nation on giving back. He is a good example to those with a lot of money to not spend it just on luxury items; instead have a concert hall in New York, donate to colleges and churches, or even fund important medical research. 

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